City Mayor Patricia Chase Green has declared that while she is not opposed to a forensic audit of the Mayor
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo
and City Council, it will not be done at the “whims and fancies” of Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo.
Her comment came in light of repeated calls by Jagdeo for there to be an audit at City Hall.
Green told Guyana Times last week that while in office, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) did not heed her constant calls for an audit of the municipality.
“It is unfortunate that he is calling for an audit now and when I was calling for it under his government, they would have bluntly refused to have that audit,” she said.
It is important to note that since during the PPP/C 23 years in office, Green’s People’s National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) has always been in control of the City Council.
In face of a barrage of forensic audits into state agencies, following the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) assumption to office more than a year ago, Jagdeo had been calling for the Georgetown Mayor and City Council to be added to the list of agencies to
Mayor Patricia Chase Green
be audited, a call that continues seemingly to fall on deaf ears.
Jagdeo had said that an audit was needed to reveal the amount of tax waivers that were given by the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), how the contracts were tendered as well as the D’urban Park project, among others.
Allegations of misconduct, financial improprieties, illegal tax write-offs as well as sweetheart deals have plagued the M&CC over the past two decades.
Jagdeo’s call was also supported by former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran: “Something has to be done because no efforts are being made to find out what happened in the last 10 years. This infers serious problems.”
He also noted that during his tenure as Auditor General he had cause to repudiate his opinion on the Council’s financial statements, adding that the accounts were in such a bad state that he was unable to endorse them as it related to their completeness, accuracy, and validity.
Goolsarran had also stated that while there was no concrete evidence to suggest wrongdoing within the Council over the last 10 years, he has deduced that non-timely presentation of financial statements implied disinterest and, therefore, raised eyebrows about the handling of fiscal matters within the Council.
“The newly-elected Councillors have to demand an audit and call for accountability within the City Council. They need to reflect on how best to fix the broken system and bring the accounts up-to-date. Simultaneously, they need to commission a special audit for the last 10 years because gathering the information for that time would take years…and the people (are) anxious to know what has been going on within City Hall and I am anxious…so a special audit is also necessary,” he had said.
There were calls from several other prominent figures for there to be an inspection of the books of the city.
